Take in the View
by chasingafterstarlight
Summary: Through the crowd, I swore I spotted a dark-haired girl that looked just like my ex-girlfriend. My eyes followed her unconsciously, noting the confident way she walked and the terrifying demeanor she portrayed. No, I chided myself. It can't be her – she's miles away in LA. You're going insane. She was literally driving me insane. / Beck and Jade meet coincidentally on a cruise.


Take in the View

.

Spring break 2014.

It was kind of obvious what I'd hoped to do – road trip with my friends, head down to Vegas for, well, who knows what, party all week long. I was in the midst of senior year, after all; this was practically my last chance. But no – I was being dragged by my parents on some kind of lousy cruise they'd chosen. Great.

At least, you'd think, there would be hot chicks I could ogle or whatever. But no, my girlfriend – _ex-girlfriend_, I corrected myself, the word felt foreign on my tongue – had ruined that for me. No one compared to her. So I was kind of screwed.

Ah well. I could whip off my shirt, lounge out by the pool, and get mobbed by females. I could pretend to be interested in one of them, lead her on, and then dump her at the end of the cruise. But what would be the point?

_I'll figure it out_, I told myself as I lugged my heavy suitcase onto the deck. One of the attendants grinned at me flirtatiously. Unconsciously, I turned on my charm. "Hey," I said as they checked my ticket or whatever.

"Oliver, group of 3," she read aloud, blushing a little. "You're in cabin 170. Have a great trip!"

"Oh, I will," I replied suavely, leading my parents onto the ship, the lobby greeting me in all its majestic splendor (and a few heads turning my way – what can I say, I'm hot). But through the crowd, I swore I spotted a dark-haired girl that looked _just like _my ex-girlfriend. My eyes followed her unconsciously, noting the confident way she walked and the terrifying demeanor she portrayed. This girl was just like her. _No_, I chided myself. _It can't be her – she's miles away in LA. You're going insane. _

She was _literally_ driving me insane.

Sighing to myself, I kept walking, my confused parents inquiring about my sudden halt behind me, but I had no answer to give them. They'd been fond of my ex-girlfriend, actually, and were quite melancholy even now that we'd decided to end things. Telling them that I might have spotted her would just fuel their excitement and they'd probably go on a manhunt to find her. No thanks.

We arrived at the room a moment or two later. My parents immediately took to unpacking their things which, to me, seemed like overkill, as we were only staying a week. Instead of unpacking, I sprawled out on my bed, staring at the ceiling and picturing_ her _in my head, her smile, her characteristic way of walking, her dark mane – could that have been her? No. There was no way. I had to stop thinking about this. I _had_ to distract myself.

"Mum, Dad," I said, jumping off my bed. "I'm going to go hang by the pool, okay? I'll meet you guys for dinner."

My mum gave me a disappointed look (probably because I was venturing off by myself on a 'family vacation'), but she shrugged. "We'll probably eat around six in the main restaurant, okay? Call us if you get lost or need us for any other reason."

"Gotcha," I called as I slipped out of the room. Honestly, I hadn't a clue where the pool was, but I figured there would be signs or _something_. They couldn't just leave young men to get lost, eventually starve, and then _die_ just because they couldn't find the pool, right?

Suddenly, a flash of black hair appeared in my peripheral vision. My eyes immediately shot to this girl, and I realized that her hair was, in fact, very similar to hers. It was dark, streaked with blue at the moment, and somewhat curly – in short, it was gorgeous. Could this possibly be her?

With raised eyebrows, I decided that my best plan at the moment was to simply follow this girl. It wasn't like I had anything to do by the pool, anyway. So I followed the mass of dark hair around the corner, creeping 50 feet behind her as not to call attention to myself. The last thing I needed right now was a restraining order or, if it was her, a nice slap in the face.

The girl didn't stop to talk to anyone, something typical of my ex-girlfriend, but simply breezed through the crowd, attracting quite a bit of attention – attention that, of course, went unnoticed by her. She just made everything look so natural and easy, never worrying about what people thought of her. I'd always envied that about her.

She took another sharp turn, tossing a glance behind her back, so I had to duck behind a plant (and I completely missed my chance to examine her face). Once I was sure she was quite a bit ahead of me, I jumped back out and continued on my quest, trailing her down a sunny corridor to – the pool?

Well, it seemed I had made it to the pool after all. And without help from anyone, either! _I'm a self-sufficient man,_ I congratulated myself. _I'm getting so big!_

However, in the mass chaos that was the pool, I lost sight of her. There were just too many people – moms toting kids, teenagers in oversized shades, girls with nice bodies. And I may have gotten a bit distracted, but only for a minute or two, and by that time she was nowhere to be found. I sighed, deciding to just go with my original plan and scope out a beach chair to lounge around in. But as I spun around to look for an empty one, my body collided with someone else's, knocking them over. And as I held out a hand to help them up with, I realized that it was _her_.

"_Beck_?!" she inquired, eyes wide and half-surprised, half-disgusted look on her face.

I sighed – my cover was blown. But I tried to smile nonetheless. "That's what they call me."

"Jerk," she spat out, refusing my hand and instead pushing herself up with her hands. "What the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"Family vacation," I told her with a shrug, used to her insults and scathing tone by now. Honestly, I'd kind of expected her to react like this, so I wasn't surprised in the least. Whoops. "How about you?"

"My lovely father thought it'd be a good retribution for his sins if he took me and Jeremiah on a little 'family vacation', so here we are, along with Mr. Robot and his woman toy," she told me slowly, the words spilling like poison from her intoxicating lips. "Ugh. I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

"I'm sorry," I said in return, not entirely sure of what was appropriate to say in this situation – honestly, what was going through my head was _Hey wanna make out_, but I was 95% sure that was completely inappropriate. "Hey, we can be friends, right?"

"Yeah, right. That's one of the biggest lies about breakups. You're never friends with the person after." She eyed me icily, beautiful eyes fixated on me like I was the scum of the earth. "Doesn't matter, anyway. It's not like –"

She was cut off, though, by a tug at her hand. Jeremiah West beamed up at me as soon as he spotted me. "Hey, Beck! I've missed you comin' around! Where've you been?"

"I've missed you too, little man," I chuckled, purposely avoiding his question. No point in crushing a kid's spirit with our dumb relationship drama.

"Come on, Jeremiah," she said, spinning away from me. "I'll go get you some ice cream."

"Can Beck come?" I heard Jeremiah ask.

I didn't hear her answer, but considering her vicious words from before, I could assume her response.

With a grin, I walked off. Her fiery spirit had always been one of my favorite things about her.

.

I finally found a beach chair a few minutes later and spent the rest of my afternoon lounging by the pool, people-watching and replaying my conversation with Jade. It was clear that her feelings towards me weren't entirely evaporated; she treated me remarkably more viciously than everyone else when she consciously remembered to, and when she didn't she treated me better than everyone else. And it was even clearer that my feelings for her were as stable as ever. It wasn't like it was possible to fall out of love with Jade West. (And, yeah, I still wanted to make out with her. Shut up.)

By the time dinner rolled around, I had a crystal clear perspective on what was happening, but I was still at a loss for what to actually do about it. This confusion became even fuzzier as I sat down with my parents to discover that the table had doubled in size.

"Beck, guess who we ran into," my mom said with a cunning smile – darn her. "Jade's here with her family as well. How funny is that?"

"Hilarious," I deadpanned, sparing a glance at Jade, who glared at me before smiling at my mother. "Um, hi Jade. And hello, Mr. and Mrs. West."

Mr. West just nodded at me. He'd never liked me much. But Mrs. West, with all her overbearing spirit, beamed at me. "Beck! How are you doing today, sweetie? How funny is it that we're all here? I'm so glad to see you again."

"You too," I replied, and then out of habit I shot a 'I'm not enjoying this' look at Jade, who looked annoyed as well. Mrs. West, oblivious as always, didn't notice. A wave of nostalgia crashed over me as I remembered the awkward family dinners where I would hold Jade's hand under the table and we'd exchange meaningful glances as her parents annoyed us. Then we'd go back to the bedroom and I'd let Jade rant about her parents and then we'd…

My father's voice brought me out of my flashback. "So how'd Jade feel about coming on this cruise? I know Beck wasn't thrilled."

"Oh, really?" Jade's sharp voice pierced through the air. "Did you have other plans, Beck?"

"No," I said with a smirk, knowing that her question was a sign that she was jealous. Sure, I could've tagged along with the Vega sisters and Andre to Vegas (but hey, that could've ended up with me accidentally married to _Trina_ – can you say nightmare), or headed out to the Grand Canyon with Cat and Robbie (boring), but honestly despite my complaints this had turned out to be the best option.

Half a smile made its way onto her face, but it disappeared within seconds. I noticed, though. I saw.

The dinner seemed miserably long; my only reprieves were Jade's baited comments (which amused me) and, well, watching Jade, as stalkerish as that may sound. By the end of the meal, I was beyond ready to get out of there, so I asked to be excused.

"Sure," my mom said, smirking in a way that made me fear for my dignity, "but you've got to bring Jade with you. We can't have our boy out there wandering alone and getting lost again, can we?"

"I didn't get lost," I said disdainfully.

"Jade said you did," my mom replied with a smile and a wink. I glanced over at Jade, who had one of those self-righteous smiles on her face, and I sighed. It seemed like she had declared herself the one in charge of making me look bad all week.

…but as long as it meant I got more alone time with her, I was okay with it.

How desperate did that make me?

.

Once we got outside, Jade sighed. "I'm not gonna apologize for telling your parents you got lost, so don't even get all pissy with me. I could've said a lot worse."

"Like what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Like the fact that you followed me around in order to 'accidentally' run into me," she snapped, giving me a glare she typically reserved for stalkers like Sinjin. Fortunately, I was not deterred.

"You don't know that. Maybe I was just going to the pool."

Jade snorted. "Yeah, right. You stared at me the whole time you 'just walked' to the pool. Sounds legit, Oliver. I could feel your eyes on me the whole time."

"But…" I hesitated, measuring my words before I let them fall out of my mouth. "Did you like it?"

She stopped in her tracks then, raising an eyebrow at me. I could feel her hesitation as she judged the sincerity of my words, and I tried to give her my sincerest smile, but due to my nerves, it probably came out as more of a grimace or a lopsided smirk. Finally, she shook her head. "Beck Oliver, if this is your attempt at asking me to get back together with you… well, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that."

"Is that a yes?" I inquired hopefully, knowing that her rage towards me had, at least, subsided, giving me more of a chance.

"That's a maybe," she said, allowing a little smile to make its way onto her face. Then she turned around, her long, luscious hair flipping back, and she peeked back at me one last time. "Meet me at the pool at two tomorrow. Don't get lost," she said quietly.

I stared after her, eyes wide. I was so very screwed.

.

"_I don't understand," I said calmly, meeting her eyes. _

"_I know you don't want me tying you down next year," Jade responded, eyes down in a rare display of anxiety. "It's okay, I get it."_

"_I never said that!" I protested, trying to stay as calm as possible. Bringing anger into this certainly wouldn't help anything, but I literally could not comprehend why she was doing this. I had no desire to break up with her. I was ready to last the next _few _years with her. I loved her!_

"_Yeah, but I could tell," she shot back, eyes blazing with some sort of emotion I didn't recognize on her. "You haven't said you loved me in forever, Beck. It's like you stopped caring. And I'm not going to freakin put up with that."_

"_I love you," I told her bluntly. "Jade, I didn't know you felt that way. You could've just told me –"_

"_Would you have listened?" she spat back._

"_Of course I would've!" I replied, eyes wide. How could she think I wouldn't listen to her? Had I done something to make her feel that way before? No, even the idea seemed ludicrous. But here she was, looking at me with eyes full of scrutiny that told me that –_

"_Whatever, Beck. Just think about what I'm saying." She glared at me. "Don't come after me."_

_For once, I listened._

_And it was the one time I should've._

.

I woke up in a pool of sweat, the memories of that night haunting me. With a sigh, I forced myself out of bed and into the shower, letting the warm water wash away my melancholy at remembering that most unfortunate night. It was almost amusing how many times we'd broken up, except it wasn't – it wasn't when the breakup was still in effect and I saw her in everything I did, in the sunset in the morning and the moon at night, and that would've almost been poetic if we were still together.

After having a quick lunch with my parents, I waved them goodbye and retraced my footsteps from yesterday to end up at the pool. Once I arrived, I realized that I was fairly early still, meaning Jade wasn't there – and twenty other girls were. I sighed audibly as a mob of them came over to talk to me.

"Hi, my name is Brittany," said the girl in front, smiling at me. "I was just wondering if you like crunchy, spicy tacos because –"

Brittany, however, was interrupted when another girl elbowed her out of the way. "Well, my name is Alyssa," she said self-importantly, puffing out her chest and grinning seductively at me. "I'm from, like, LA, and I know _tons_ of celebrities. Seriously."

Another girl stepped up – brunette, dark, pretty, I thought, but nothing compared to Jade. "What's your name? I'm gonna be, like, your biggest fan. Totally."

With a deep sigh, I shook my head. "Sorry, guys, I can't –"

"But I – " Alyssa tried to say.

"Spicy tacos!" Brittany squeaked.

"I have a girlfriend," I blurted out. This made all the girls, even taco-obsessed Brittany, clear out of the way, leaving Jade behind. Immediately I felt incredibly nervous. How much had she heard? Was she going to kill me in cold blood?

Jade simply smirked at me. "So you've got a girlfriend, hm? You might've mentioned that before you, ya know, expressed interest in getting back together with me."

"Fine," I said with a feigned sigh. "I'll rephrase. I have a girl who I am _very _interested in getting back together with. Better?"

She lifted an eyebrow, obviously considering my proposition once again. "And that girl says maybe."

"Maybe?" I protested. "What do I have to do?"

"Say you love me," she said with a little smirk.

And I listened once again. "I love you. Forever, probably."

"There better not be a probably," she snapped. But she kissed me anyway.

.

When I texted my parents to say that Jade and I were going to a show, they were surprised to say the least, but excited that Jade and I were able to get our relationship back on 'friendly terms'. I had a good laugh at that. Jade just stared at me like I was crazy. (In a way, I was.)

It was weird – a good weird, let me clarify – to sit in the theater room with Jade again, her head on my shoulder, my arm around her shoulders. But it still felt natural, and as soon as intermission occurred, I leaned in to kiss her. She immediately complied, and suffice it to say we pretty much missed the second half of the show. But what can I say? She intoxicates me.

By the time the show was over, the sun was going down and we went out to the deck. "It's like Titanic," Jade said with a laugh, glancing out at the tossing waves. Despite her disdain for sappy things, Jade actually rather likes _Titanic_. Of course, that might be because the ship sinks and a lot of people die – but, you know, whatever.

"It's not yet," I corrected, and, taking her hand, I led her out to the very front of the ship. Once we got there and the wind was blowing properly in Jade's hair, she glanced back at me. "I feel ridiculous," was all she said.

"You are," I said with a laugh. "Go ahead, though. I won't judge."

So she spread her arms out and I wrapped my arms around her waist – probably a little more PG-13 than the actual Titanic, but whatever, especially since I kissed her neck a few times. She gave one of her super rare laughs. "So I guess I'm flying now."

"If you fall off I'm gonna kill you," I murmured into her neck. "Just cause we're doing the Titanic pose doesn't mean we need to die."

"I'll just throw you off instead, then," she said with a laugh. I rolled my eyes at her.

.

Sharing a room with your parents puts a huge damper on any makeup festivities, let me tell ya. It meant Jade and I couldn't stay together that night – in any sense of the phrase. So I kissed Jade good night at her door and exited to go to my own room, still on a high from our makeup. Being without her – well, it kinda sucked, even if it hadn't been for too long.

My parents noticed, too. "You seem happy," commented my mom as I unconsciously grinned while brushing my teeth.

"Hm," I hummed as I spat into the sink. "I guess some things just turn out well sometimes, ya know?"

"You're back together with Jade, yeah?" my mom said with a laugh.

"What makes you say that?" I asked, giving one last spit before turning around to face her.

"No other girl makes you _that_ happy," my mom commented absently before turning out her light. "Good night, Beck."

Good night, indeed.

.

The next day we docked at some special island that was exclusive to our cruise line. My parents, ecstatic as they were, immediately decided to head out to start exploring, which I wasn't too keen on doing. Reluctantly, they made me promise to keep my phone on and meet up with them later on the day. I agreed and stayed behind on the ship.

At around 10:30, I heard a knock on my door. A bored-looking Jade stood on the other side, looking fiercely hot in a black bikini. "We're going to find a hot tub," she told me.

"Oh, are we now?" I asked with a grin.

"Put on your bathing suit," she said, not bothering with my childishness.

So of course, I snatched up my swim trunks and the two of us headed out. "I think it's on the top deck," I told her.

"That sounds right," she muttered, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Let's just hope we don't take a wrong turn and end up on the topless deck."

Of course, that made me grin. "I wouldn't mind."

She elbowed me, giving me a dark, glowering look. "Perv."

"I'm just being honest," I defended myself quickly.

We got up there twenty minutes later, her hand still attached to mine, my thumb rubbing soothing circles into her palm – especially as we walked by Alyssa and her clan, who were practically glowering at Jade. In response, Jade simply glared at them through her sunglasses, and I was quite proud.

The hot tub was, in fact, on the upper deck, and devoid of little children – which was good, as I wasn't sure if Jade would devour them or not. She sighed, removing her cover up and getting into the water. "Come on in, the water's fine."

I stuck one toe in and immediately realized that the water was beyond 'warm'. "This is burning," I hissed, jumping right back out.

"No it's not, you big baby," she teased, lowering her body into the water in an alluring manner. "Just get in. You get used to it."

"Or maybe you're just cold-blooded," I retorted, staring with fearful eyes at the boiling water.

"Chicken."

"I just don't want to be boiled alive," I shot back.

"Eh, I wouldn't eat you," she said seriously. "You're too skinny. Not enough meat."

With a roll of my eyes, I stuck my foot into the water and yelped. "I don't know how the heck you do this," I said as I slowly climbed in, feeling my flesh being practically fried by the water. Of course this was something Jade would enjoy. _Of course_.

But she was right on one thing. Once I got used to it, it was actually sort of relaxing. But having Jade right next to me, her warm body touching mine – well, that was kind of the opposite of relaxing, especially when she realized what was happening and slowly dragged her toe up my leg. I felt myself gasping and then glaring over at her. "Don't do that."

"What?" she asked innocently, raising an eyebrow. "This?" She repeated her action, grinning from ear to ear.

"I hate you," I gasped.

"I think your reaction proves otherwise," she said, tilting her face towards me – and, of course, I grabbed it and pulled her lips to mine. We kissed for a while, her hands trailing down my face, my exposed upper torso, roaming over my abs. I kept mine at her face until she pulled them down, and that's when I realized what was happening and panted, "Wanna go back to the room?"

"If we have to," she said with a smirk.

And so, you know, we did. And I didn't up meeting up with my parents that day. They were majorly pissed, but I was pretty thrilled.

.

The last night they were there we had a formal dinner. I had to wear a suit & tie and all that, and suffice it to say that I thought that I looked pretty darn spiffy. Jade, on the other hand, looked flawless – at least to me. Her hair was done up and her dress was a gorgeous shade of blue and I couldn't wait to walk in with her on my arm that night. She smirked at me. "Very nice, Oliver. Didn't know you could clean up like that."

"Well, you look gorgeous, so there's that," I said, kissing her gently on the forehead.

"Shut up," she said, but she was smiling, so I figured I'd done something right.

We made our families sit together again, which my parents wouldn't have minded had I not screwed stuff up the other day, but they were polite nonetheless, joking about the expensive lobster – which Jade's dad ended up ordering. Oops. I simply got some kind of fancy chicken, which Jade told me was fitting. I laughed, elbowing her gently – and getting some kind of sauce on her fancy dress. Guess we're not too good at this fancy stuff.

But at the end of the night, they started playing some of that fancy music, the kind that is usually played at formal balls and dances. So, of course, I smiled at Jade and asked her politely, "Can I have this dance?"

"No one's dancing, you weirdo," she hissed in response.

"We'll be the first ones, then," I said with a shrug.

She looked around, seeing all the average people sitting and eating their food, and then she seemed to relent. "Whatever," she said with a sigh, allowing me to help her out of her seat and then wrapping her arms around my neck. I placed mine on her (very nice) waist and grinned.

Then we danced. The music swirled around us, but I scarcely even noticed; I was so focused on Jade – on her beautiful face, on her half-smile as she stared at me, on her gorgeous eyes – and I thought again of how lucky I was to have gotten her back. Girls like this only come once in a lifetime, y'know.

"I love you," I whispered, pressing my forehead against hers.

"Yeah, yeah," she said back, but then she smiled. "You too."

And that, my friend, is how one crappy spring break with your parents can turn into the most magical spring vacation ever.

(Don't tell Jade I told you, though.)

.

**A/N: I know – ew, first person. I wanted to try writing Beck, though. He's just so… **_**weird**_**. I had to try.**

**And Britt asked for a cruise Bade fic so good luck with this one, man.**

**Please leave a review and let me know what you thought! It helps. Seriously. And I try to reply to all reviews.**


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